This invention relates to a telecommunications system and method for automatic call recognition and distribution and, more particularly, to a telecommunications system and method for connecting subscribers to one of a plurality of service providers.
For large service providers that have branches/centers that are distributed and remote from each other, and having telephone numbers pertaining to particular services in different locations, it is difficult for a customer to be connected with a service requested by the customer through a single telephone call by the customer to the service provider. Often, the customer has to make several calls to get to the particular service requested, leading to customer dissatisfaction and inefficient call handling, thereby increasing costs to the customer.
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) systems are known and used by service and marketing companies. An incoming call from a customer may be distributed by the ACD system among a number of call handling agents in the event that simultaneous calls are received from a plurality of customers. The call is simply directed to an agent""s workstation that is available to accept the call. Such ACD systems generally are only capable of distributing an incoming call at one particular site. They do not have the capability to transfer calls to another site should a different service be requested or an agent with more experience be required to handle the call, the agent being remotely located from the site at which the original call was received.
Also known are systems that use interactive voice response (IVR) procedures to determine information about a customer and a particular service required. Specifically, when a customer calls a service provider he or she will be greeted with a recorded voice message offering a number of options as to what service the customer wishes to be connected with. The customer responds by pressing any number of digits of a touch telephone that uses dual tone modulation frequency (DTMF). Depending on the responses of the customer, the system then directs the call to connect it with the service. However, a disadvantage with such a system is that the customer requires access to a DTMF telephone to respond to the voice prompts. There are many decadic dialling telephones still in use today and for customers having such telephones, the IVR procedures are of limited benefit.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system in which customers having such decadic dialling telephones may use IVR to be connected with a service. Such a system may use Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), wherein ASR is used in conjunction with IVR so that a customer can be directed through the telecommunications system to the appropriate service.
It is also desirable to provide a system which allows customers access to services of different service providers on one call initiated by the customer.
The present invention provides for a telecommunications system and method that allows a customer to be connected to a service of a plurality of service providers in a more efficient and cost effective manner than previously known systems.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a telecommunications system for connecting callers in a telecommunications network to a plurality of call destinations providing different services for the callers, comprising:
call receiving means to receive telephone calls from users, said call receiving means including
interactive response means adapted to interrogate a caller to determine caller and service information identifying the caller and the type of service required by the caller, and adapted to determine an appropriate call destination for each call; and
a remotely located call processing center adapted to communicate remotely with the call receiving means and arranged to receive and process the caller and service information received from said call receiving means thereby acting to liberate the call receiving means for other incoming telephone calls while the call processing center, connects a telephone call received from the call receiving means to an appropriate call destination for the service required by the caller as determined by the processing of said received caller and service information.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for connecting a caller in a telecommunications system to one of a plurality of call destinations providing different services, said method comprising the steps of:
receiving an incoming telephone call from a caller;
interrogating the caller by interactive response procedures to determine caller and service information about the caller, such as the caller""s identity and the type of service required by the caller;
sending the caller and service information to a remotely located call processing center;
receiving and processing the caller and service information at the call processing center thereby acting to liberate the call receiving means for other incoming telephone calls; and
connecting the call to an appropriate call destination in accordance with the processing of said received caller and service information.
Preferably, the call processing center includes automatic call distribution means adapted to transfer telephone calls received from the call receiving means to appropriate call handling agents of a service provider as determined by the processing of said received caller and service information.
The call processing center preferably includes, or is in communication with, at least one customer information database, associated with a service provider, containing information about customers of the service provider, and the call processing center is arranged to retrieve information about a customer from the customer information database, e.g. for display on a visual display unit at a workstation of a call handling agent of said service provider, prior to or simultaneously with the call processing center forwarding the telephone call to said agent.
The call receiving means preferably includes, or is adapted to communicate with, a customer service database containing service data identifying the services of particular service providers, which services are available to be accessed from the call processing center.
The interactive response means of the call receiving means is conveniently arranged to communicate with the customer service database when interrogating a caller to determine whether or not the type of service required by the caller is available to be accessed from the call processing center.
The data and information identifying the caller and service information is preferably sent from the call receiving means to the remote call processing center over a telecommunications network. The information may be sent in the form of data signals using standard or proprietary telecommunications signalling procedures.
As used herein, the term interactive response means encompasses any type of interactive response application which is able to interrogate a caller by question and answer procedures.
The interactive response means may, for instance, comprise an interactive response device which recognizes text messages generated by a teletypewriter (TTY) and which provides response messages using TTY codes.
In an alternative preferred embodiment, the interactive response means comprises interactive voice response means containing pre-stored voice response messages and internal programs for generating appropriate voice response messages to interrogate a caller.
The interactive voice response means may, for example, be arranged to recognize dual tone modulation frequency (DTMF) coded messages produced by a touch telephone in reply to pre-recorded voice questions generated by the interactive voice response means.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, the call receiving means further includes automatic speech recognition means arranged to recognize a caller""s speech replies to the interactive voice response means.
Preferably, the voice response messages are generated by the interactive voice response means in response to the voice replies from the caller which are recognized by the speech recognition means.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a telecommunications apparatus comprising:
call receiving means to receive telephone calls from callers; said call receiving means including
(i) interactive voice response means adapted to interrogate a caller to determine caller and service information identifying the caller and the type of service required by the caller;
(ii) automatic speech recognition means arranged to recognize a caller""s speech responses to the interactive voice response means; and
(iii) interface means adapted to communicate with a remotely located call processing center for providing said caller and service information to said call processing center thereby acting to liberate the call receiving means for other incoming telephone calls.
The call processing center may be connected to a plurality of call handling agents and arranged to connect a telephone call received from the call receiving means to an appropriate call handling agents for the service required by the caller.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for connecting a caller in a telecommunications system to one of a plurality of call destinations providing different services, said method comprising the steps of:
receiving an incoming telephone call from a caller;
interrogating the caller by interactive voice response procedures using automatic speech recognition to determine information about the caller, such as the caller""s identity and the type of service required by the caller;
sending the caller and service information to a remotely located call processing center;
receiving and processing the information at the call processing center thereby acting to liberate the call receiving means for other incoming calls; and
connecting the call to an appropriate call destination in accordance with the processing of said received caller and service information.
In the apparatus and method of the third and fourth aspects of the invention, the call receiving means for receiving incoming calls is preferably connected to a customer service computer.
The customer service computer preferably contains a database of service data identifying the services of a plurality of service providers. The customer service computer may also contain automatic speech recognition programs and/or interactive voice response programs and messages which correspond to particular services available to be accessed in the system and which can be downloaded to the call receiving means. The customer service computer may also contain information about services which can enable the call receiving means to handle service requests from callers without having to transfer the calls to a remote call processing center or remote call handling agents.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, the customer service computer is located remotely from the call receiving means so that the automatic speech recognition programs and/or the interactive voice response programs and messages used at the call receiving means can be remotely loaded and remotely updated and adjusted from the customer service computer. The call receiving means may communicate with the remotely located customer service computer by any convenient datalink, such as a switched broadband access link.